Personal Accountability
Do you ever blame others for dropping the ball? Or wonder when people are going to learn how to communicate in a way that works?
Finger pointing is something most of us do from time to time. It doesn’t work of course—I’m sure you have heard the old saying, “when you point one finger, you have three others pointing right back at you!”
To transform finger pointing into positive, problem-solving action you have to ask a different question. The question begins with, “WHAT?” or “HOW.” It has the word “I” in it, and it focuses on taking action.
Instead of asking a finger-pointing question like:
- "Why are they making us go through all this change?"
Ask a personal accountability question like:
- "How can I adapt to my changing world?"
Instead of being negative and asking:
- "When are my people going to communicate better?"
Take ownership and ask:
- "What can I do today to understand them?"
Promoting Accountability at Work
"Accountability is generated from within, it cannot be "given" from outside. It prompts you to avoid finger-pointing and blame, and instead, to sense and catch the emerging problems and opportunities early on, and accept a role in responding to them." Executive EQ. Robert Cooper and Ayman Sawaf. (1997)
Accountability promotes employee empowerment and ownership and is a necessary step in ensuring that people take responsibility and ownership for their part of the project. Only by giving people the freedom and accountability to do their jobs to the best of their ability, will a organization truly discover its potential.
Some tips for promoting accountability:
- Communicate up and down the hierarchy to get the perspectives from all employees at all levels.
- Reward honesty, enthusiasm, and independence of thought.
- Promote the idea of a shared vision, where all employees are asked to give input on the future of the organization.
Promote enquiry and advocacy at work and encourage others to challenge each other’s notions of what the company is, as well as what the company could be. This will unlock many hidden assumptions that employees may have about the organization and encourage others to own their ideas about the business.
Tracking Accountability at Work
“Wisdom is knowing what to do, virtue is doing it.” David Starr Jordan, Forbes Magazine
One of the most effective ways to handle accountability is also the simplest. Just ask your employee, “What do you want to be accountable for this week?” You may be surprised at what your people are willing to ask of themselves.
Another great tool for creating accountability is the SMART acronym:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time Oriented
And while it may seem simplistic, you will be surprised, even after months of coaching, by the number of employees who are still vague and nonspecific. As a manager, you are of great value when you ask your employees to spell out exactly what they will do.
It could be that you and your employee agree that he or she will write the first draft of the business plan by next Thursday and will fax pages to you as they are completed. Or that you agree that he or she will make 10 calls by Friday and call your voice mail each day with an update until all ten are done.
Some people, however, need a more free flowing approach. “How’s it going with your marketing plan?” is an example of accountability in its most gentle form. Still, you need to ask three key questions to help nail down accountability:
- What Will You Do?
- When Will You Do It?
- How Will I Know?
While your job is to sense which action will move them forward or deepen their learning, the actual details come primarily from the employee. Remember, your people are resourceful, they know what action they need to take and what will work. You, as the manager need to be ready to probe and push and raise the bar, but you don’t have to create the task list for your people.
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